President Clinton praised today’s Senate decision to bring the Chemical Weapons
Convention to the floor for a vote Thursday, April 24.
The text of the President’s statement follows:
I welcome today’s unanimous agreement
by the Senate to bring the Chemical Weapons Convention to a vote next week. This
treaty -- initiated by the Reagan Administration, completed and signed by the Bush
Administration, submitted to the Senate by my administration -- has been bipartisan from
the beginning. Now, thanks to the good faith efforts of Majority Leader Lott and Minority
Leader Daschle -- working closely with my national security team and key members of the
Senate from both sides of the aisle -- the Senate will be able to vote on the treaty before
it goes into effect on April 29.
Over the past two and a half months, we have all gone
the extra mile to work through outstanding concerns about the treaty. As a result of
negotiations Senator Lott and I established, and discussions led by Senators Biden and Helms,
we now have agreement on 28 conditions that will be included in the treaty’s resolution of
ratification when it goes to a vote -- resolving virtually all of the issues that have been
raised about the CWC.
Just today, our negotiators reached agreement concerning the use of
Riot Control Agents like tear gas and to require warrants for any involuntary searches of
an American business or facility under the treaty’s inspection provisions. We still have five issues
on which we
| fundamentally disagree -- but
we are now assured, thanks to today’s agreement, that they will be decided by votes of the
full Senate.
These important developments reflect widespread, bipartisan and growing support for the
Chemical Weapons Convention. Yesterday, former Presidents Bush and Ford joined Secretary
of State Albright in making a special appeal for ratification. Today, at a Congressional
hearing, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell strongly reiterated his
endorsement of the treaty -- which also has the support of every other Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff for the past two decades. And three former Secretaries of Defense -- Harold
Brown, Elliot Richardson, and Bill Perry -- released a joint statement calling for the
Senate to ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention.
All of these distinguished American leaders agree that by requiring countries around the
world to destroy their chemical weapons stockpiles -- as the United States already has
decided to do -- and to renounce developing or trading in chemical weapons in the future,
the Chemical Weapons Convention will help make our troops safer while making it harder for
rogue states and terrorists to acquire chemical weapons.
This treaty literally was “made in America” and it also is right for America. I urge
every member of the Senate to support the Chemical Weapons Convention when it comes to a
vote next week. |
